MOST IMPORTANT RULE TO REMEMBER WHEN YOU WRITE: All quotes must be cited. All the time. Every single one--no exceptions. Each and every time. Always. No quote should be without a citation. Ever. Cite your sources!
1) Put your name, class, and date on your paper. Just because you save your paper digitally and your name is on the file name does NOT mean you don't need your name on your actual paper.
2) Good paragraphs, especially in research and academic papers, have a topic sentence. In any formal writing (research papers and the like), every paragraph should begin with a topic sentence, one statement that indicates what the entire paragraph will be about. A reader should be able to go through your entire paper, read the first sentence of every paragraph, and get a clear and thorough outline of your entire paper.
3) The last sentence should NOT be about the next paragraph (as some of you may have been taught). The last sentence of a paragraph needs to be, in content, the same as the rest of the paragraph. Each paragraph is like a little 5-paragraph essay with an introduction (the topic sentence), a body (the info in the paragraph), and a conclusion (the last sentence in the paragraph).
4) never end a paragraph with a quote. The purpose of quoting is to support your ideas, but you must explain how the quote does this. If you end with a quote, your reader does not know how the quote supports your ideas.
5) Always refer to author by last name, not first name, after you have introduced the author by both first and last.
6) Always introduce a source before you use it. When you say "Smith says blah blah blah" but you haven't told your reader who Smith is, your research is much less persuasive.A good introduction of a source includes the author's full name, the title of the source, and a one-sentence summary--very brief, a short sentence--that gives the reader an idea of the main idea or purpose of the source.
7) Never have an "orphan" quote: a quote not connected to the rest of your writing. They feel to the reader as though you forgot you were required to quote and went back and just stuck it in. You must have a "signal phrase," some sort of "The author says" kind of language, at the minimum, connected to every quote. (i.e. Smith says, "Orphan quotes are not reader-friendly." )
8) Avoid using "you." It sounds preachy and will make your reader feel defensive. "You" does not mean “people in general.” The immediate reaction of any reader is to be defensive. When I read "When you are at home, you never really talk about what you learned in school," my first instinct is to say “yes I do—I talk about what I learn in school all the time!” The word means you are talking directly to the reader (as I am right now, talking to YOU as you read this). If you are saying something that is about you, use first person. Otherwise say “people I know” or even "we". Stay away from "you" the most in the conclusion where you will be most tempted to resort to this. Then you will get really preachy.
9) If you misspell the word "definitely", spellcheck will automatically change it to "defiantly" and then your sentence will sound silly. Go to "find" and type in "defiantly"--if it shows up, change it.
10) Languages like English and Spanish are always capitalized. If you are writing about school subjects, only these language subjects are capitalized. Subjects like math, science, and history are not capitalized.
11) Reading your paper out loud before you turn it in will help you find most of your errors, like reading this out loud (a common opening sentence): "In “Language as a bridge and identity” by Hector Tobar mentioned how people spoke many languages."
12) Never refer to your sources or any other outside references as "the first article" or "the third website"--this has little meaning to a reader who cannot know what "first" and "third" refer to (first article you mentioned? First one you read? First one in the pile? First one published?) It's vague and frustrating. When writing about sources and referring to them, always refer to them by whatever would be in the citation, which is usually the author's last name.
13) All paraphrases must include some sort of attribution to the source. The easiest way is to begin with name of author or article, contain "he said" language throughout, and end with citation. If you do not do this, you are plagiarizing.
14) If you are quoting an article that has an error in it, you need to quote the article exactly, error and all, but follow the error with [sic]. I don't know what it stands for (some Latin thing) but it indicates that you are aware of the error but you didn't make it; the article made the error.
15) The word "credible" means "believable or convincing; worthy of confidence or trustworthy" The word "creditable" means "deserving honor" -- and is NOT the word you usually use when discussing your sources. Your sources are NOT creditable unless they are so awesome that they are both credible and a whole host of other things.
16) Never have quotes strung together, one quote directly after another. The purpose of quoting is to support your ideas, but you must explain how the quote supports your ideas before providing another quote. Having one quote and then another is overwhelming to readers.
17) Citations always go at the end of the sentence just before the period, regardless of where the quote is in the sentence. 18) When you are not using a word but are instead referring to a word, the word you are referring to goes in italics and NOT in quotes because you are not quoting anyone.EX: I feel the word overused is overused. (the first one is referring to the word and the second is using the word). 19) Spell out all words under 100. 20) Never use "air quotes" when you are writing with sources. The reader will think you are quoting but not citing. Say what you have to say, and if you feel the need for some kind of added emphasis, use italics instead. 21) It is seldom appropriate to use what is called "meta-language" in your writing--language that draws attention to the fact that you are writing an assignment or that you read an article or that discusses what you are going to write about. A reader will be annoyed by you drawing attention to yourself. This kind of "I wrote a paper" language should be avoided. The only exception might be in the introduction section of a very long (20 or more) paper, where you might want to tell your reader where you are headed so that they can actually skip sections that are not important to them.
TIPS SPECIFICALLY REFERRING TO USING MLA
1) According to MLA, in-text citations include first word on WC (usually the last name of the author) and page number, no comma. That's it. If an article you are citing has no author, the title of the article goes in your in-text citation instead. But you don't need the whole title; just enough to lead your reader to the Works Cited page. EX: "The Article I Wrote is Awesome" would be cited this way in-text: quote quote" ("Article" 14). Notice, too, that "The" is omitted. Citations and alphabetizing always ignore the, a, and an,.
2) The period goes after the parentheses in your in-text citation like this: "quote blah blah blah" (Author 3). No period inside the quote marks. The only exception is long quote format.
3) All in-text citations need a page number. If you have a source (like a website) with no page numbers, put a 1 as the page or number the paragraphs and put (Smith para. 14). as your citation - author's last name, "para" for paragraph, and 14 here is the page number).
4) If a quote is longer than three lines, it must be in long quote format: introduce with a colon, indent entire quote 10 spaces, no " " marks, period before. (citation)
5) Titles of publications (journals, magazines, etc) are always in italics, both when you refer to them in your writing and in your Works Cited page. They are treated just like a book. Movies, too!
6) According to MLA, all title words should be capitalized except for prepositions and articles, even if the title is not capitalized in the actual article. Never use all caps, even if the article has them that way. (Example: "When the World Comes to an End")
7) Titles of short pieces (articles, poems, essays, etc) go in "quotation marks" and larger works (books, magazine titles, journal titles, etc) go in italics. No title is ever both in quotations marks and italics
8) Citations go at the end of the sentence regardless of where the quote is. 9) If you quote a quote (In Smith's article, Smith quotes Jones and you use Jones' quote from this article of Smith's) then you put the name of the person you are quoting in the sentence and the author of the article in the citation with qtd. in--like this: Jones says, "I am hungry" (qtd. in Smith 23).
TIPS SPECIFICALLY REFERRING TO APA
1) APA requires that the first time an author's name is mentioned (or the title if no author), the year of publication goes after it in parentheses like this: In his article "Life is Good," Smith (2013) said blah blah blah., or In the movie Tootsie (1981), Dustin Hoffman...etc.
2) While MLA uses present tense, every time any text is discussed or mentioned, it must be in past tense. So instead of "Smith says life is good" you must make the shift to past tense: "Smith said life is good"
3) All APA in-text citations require the author's last name, year of publication, and page number somewhere in the sentence. So you could have "Smith (2013) said "Life is Good" (p. 25). Or you can have "Life is good" (Smith, 2013, p. 25).
4) APA requires page numbers. If no stable page numbers exist, use paragraph numbers and par. (Smith, 2014, par. 6).
5) If a source has no author, put the first word or two of the title in the citation in quotation marks for articles and italics for books ("Something," 2014, p. 23).
6) The period goes after the parentheses in your in-text citation like this: "quote blah blah blah" (Author 3). No period inside the quote marks. The only exception is long quote format.
7) If a quote is longer than three lines, it must be in long quote format: introduce with a colon, indent entire quote 5 spaces, no " " marks, period before. (citation)
8) Titles of publications (journals, magazines, etc) in your paper are always in italics, both when you refer to them in your writing and in your references page. They are treated just like a book. Movies, too!
9) Titles of short pieces (articles, poems, essays, etc) go in "quotation marks" in your paper even though there are no " " on the references page. No title is ever both in quotations marks and italics
10) Citations always go directly after the quote.
11) If you quote a quote (In Smith's article, Smith quotes Jones and you use Jones' quote from this article of Smith's) then you put the name of the person you are quoting in the sentence and the author of the article in the citation with "as cited in"--like this:
Jones says, "I am hungry" (as cited. in Smith, 2012, 23).
12) Only the first word of titles are capitalized: not "The Reason I Write a Paper" but "The reason I write a paper." (you have to capitalize I all the time--same with proper names).
13) Basic online APA Reference page entries are like this:
Last, F.M. (date). Title of article. Title of publication. Retrieved from date and URL.
If no author, begin with the title of article followed by date.
Title of article (date). Title of publication. Retrieved from date and URL.
All quotes must be cited. All the time. Every single one--no exceptions. Each and every time. Always. No quote should be without a citation. Ever. Cite your sources!
1) Put your name, class, and date on your paper. Just because you save your paper digitally and your name is on the file name does NOT mean you don't need your name on your actual paper.
2) Good paragraphs, especially in research and academic papers, have a topic sentence. In any formal writing (research papers and the like), every paragraph should begin with a topic sentence, one statement that indicates what the entire paragraph will be about. A reader should be able to go through your entire paper, read the first sentence of every paragraph, and get a clear and thorough outline of your entire paper.
3) The last sentence should NOT be about the next paragraph (as some of you may have been taught). The last sentence of a paragraph needs to be, in content, the same as the rest of the paragraph. Each paragraph is like a little 5-paragraph essay with an introduction (the topic sentence), a body (the info in the paragraph), and a conclusion (the last sentence in the paragraph).
4) never end a paragraph with a quote. The purpose of quoting is to support your ideas, but you must explain how the quote does this. If you end with a quote, your reader does not know how the quote supports your ideas.
5) Always refer to author by last name, not first name, after you have introduced the author by both first and last.
6) Always introduce a source before you use it. When you say "Smith says blah blah blah" but you haven't told your reader who Smith is, your research is much less persuasive.A good introduction of a source includes the author's full name, the title of the source, and a one-sentence summary--very brief, a short sentence--that gives the reader an idea of the main idea or purpose of the source.
7) Never have an "orphan" quote: a quote not connected to the rest of your writing. They feel to the reader as though you forgot you were required to quote and went back and just stuck it in. You must have a "signal phrase," some sort of "The author says" kind of language, at the minimum, connected to every quote. (i.e. Smith says, "Orphan quotes are not reader-friendly." )
8) Avoid using "you." It sounds preachy and will make your reader feel defensive. "You" does not mean “people in general.” The immediate reaction of any reader is to be defensive. When I read "When you are at home, you never really talk about what you learned in school," my first instinct is to say “yes I do—I talk about what I learn in school all the time!” The word means you are talking directly to the reader (as I am right now, talking to YOU as you read this). If you are saying something that is about you, use first person. Otherwise say “people I know” or even "we". Stay away from "you" the most in the conclusion where you will be most tempted to resort to this. Then you will get really preachy.
9) If you misspell the word "definitely", spellcheck will automatically change it to "defiantly" and then your sentence will sound silly. Go to "find" and type in "defiantly"--if it shows up, change it.
10) Languages like English and Spanish are always capitalized. If you are writing about school subjects, only these language subjects are capitalized. Subjects like math, science, and history are not capitalized.
11) Reading your paper out loud before you turn it in will help you find most of your errors, like reading this out loud (a common opening sentence):
"In “Language as a bridge and identity” by Hector Tobar mentioned how people spoke many languages."
12) Never refer to your sources or any other outside references as "the first article" or "the third website"--this has little meaning to a reader who cannot know what "first" and "third" refer to (first article you mentioned? First one you read? First one in the pile? First one published?) It's vague and frustrating. When writing about sources and referring to them, always refer to them by whatever would be in the citation, which is usually the author's last name.
13) All paraphrases must include some sort of attribution to the source. The easiest way is to begin with name of author or article, contain "he said" language throughout, and end with citation. If you do not do this, you are plagiarizing.
14) If you are quoting an article that has an error in it, you need to quote the article exactly, error and all, but follow the error with [sic]. I don't know what it stands for (some Latin thing) but it indicates that you are aware of the error but you didn't make it; the article made the error.
15) The word "credible" means "believable or convincing; worthy of confidence or trustworthy"
The word "creditable" means "deserving honor" -- and is NOT the word you usually use when discussing your sources. Your sources are NOT creditable unless they are so awesome that they are both credible and a whole host of other things.
16) Never have quotes strung together, one quote directly after another. The purpose of quoting is to support your ideas, but you must explain how the quote supports your ideas before providing another quote. Having one quote and then another is overwhelming to readers.
17) Citations always go at the end of the sentence just before the period, regardless of where the quote is in the sentence.
18) When you are not using a word but are instead referring to a word, the word you are referring to goes in italics and NOT in quotes because you are not quoting anyone.EX: I feel the word overused is overused. (the first one is referring to the word and the second is using the word).
19) Spell out all words under 100.
20) Never use "air quotes" when you are writing with sources. The reader will think you are quoting but not citing. Say what you have to say, and if you feel the need for some kind of added emphasis, use italics instead.
21) It is seldom appropriate to use what is called "meta-language" in your writing--language that draws attention to the fact that you are writing an assignment or that you read an article or that discusses what you are going to write about. A reader will be annoyed by you drawing attention to yourself. This kind of "I wrote a paper" language should be avoided. The only exception might be in the introduction section of a very long (20 or more) paper, where you might want to tell your reader where you are headed so that they can actually skip sections that are not important to them.
TIPS SPECIFICALLY REFERRING TO USING MLA
1) According to MLA, in-text citations include first word on WC (usually the last name of the author) and page number, no comma. That's it. If an article you are citing has no author, the title of the article goes in your in-text citation instead. But you don't need the whole title; just enough to lead your reader to the Works Cited page. EX: "The Article I Wrote is Awesome" would be cited this way in-text: quote quote" ("Article" 14). Notice, too, that "The" is omitted. Citations and alphabetizing always ignore the, a, and an,.2) The period goes after the parentheses in your in-text citation like this: "quote blah blah blah" (Author 3). No period inside the quote marks. The only exception is long quote format.
3) All in-text citations need a page number. If you have a source (like a website) with no page numbers, put a 1 as the page or number the paragraphs and put (Smith para. 14). as your citation - author's last name, "para" for paragraph, and 14 here is the page number).
4) If a quote is longer than three lines, it must be in long quote format: introduce with a colon, indent entire quote 10 spaces, no " " marks, period before. (citation)
5) Titles of publications (journals, magazines, etc) are always in italics, both when you refer to them in your writing and in your Works Cited page. They are treated just like a book. Movies, too!
6) According to MLA, all title words should be capitalized except for prepositions and articles, even if the title is not capitalized in the actual article. Never use all caps, even if the article has them that way. (Example: "When the World Comes to an End")
7) Titles of short pieces (articles, poems, essays, etc) go in "quotation marks" and larger works (books, magazine titles, journal titles, etc) go in italics. No title is ever both in quotations marks and italics
8) Citations go at the end of the sentence regardless of where the quote is.
9) If you quote a quote (In Smith's article, Smith quotes Jones and you use Jones' quote from this article of Smith's) then you put the name of the person you are quoting in the sentence and the author of the article in the citation with qtd. in--like this:
Jones says, "I am hungry" (qtd. in Smith 23).
TIPS SPECIFICALLY REFERRING TO APA
1) APA requires that the first time an author's name is mentioned (or the title if no author), the year of publication goes after it in parentheses like this: In his article "Life is Good," Smith (2013) said blah blah blah., or In the movie Tootsie (1981), Dustin Hoffman...etc.
2) While MLA uses present tense, every time any text is discussed or mentioned, it must be in past tense. So instead of "Smith says life is good" you must make the shift to past tense: "Smith said life is good"
3) All APA in-text citations require the author's last name, year of publication, and page number somewhere in the sentence. So you could have "Smith (2013) said "Life is Good" (p. 25). Or you can have "Life is good" (Smith, 2013, p. 25).
4) APA requires page numbers. If no stable page numbers exist, use paragraph numbers and par. (Smith, 2014, par. 6).
5) If a source has no author, put the first word or two of the title in the citation in quotation marks for articles and italics for books ("Something," 2014, p. 23).
6) The period goes after the parentheses in your in-text citation like this: "quote blah blah blah" (Author 3). No period inside the quote marks. The only exception is long quote format.
7) If a quote is longer than three lines, it must be in long quote format: introduce with a colon, indent entire quote 5 spaces, no " " marks, period before. (citation)
8) Titles of publications (journals, magazines, etc) in your paper are always in italics, both when you refer to them in your writing and in your references page. They are treated just like a book. Movies, too!
9) Titles of short pieces (articles, poems, essays, etc) go in "quotation marks" in your paper even though there are no " " on the references page. No title is ever both in quotations marks and italics
10) Citations always go directly after the quote.
11) If you quote a quote (In Smith's article, Smith quotes Jones and you use Jones' quote from this article of Smith's) then you put the name of the person you are quoting in the sentence and the author of the article in the citation with "as cited in"--like this:
Jones says, "I am hungry" (as cited. in Smith, 2012, 23).
12) Only the first word of titles are capitalized: not "The Reason I Write a Paper" but "The reason I write a paper." (you have to capitalize I all the time--same with proper names).
13) Basic online APA Reference page entries are like this:
Last, F.M. (date). Title of article. Title of publication. Retrieved from date and URL.
If no author, begin with the title of article followed by date.
Title of article (date). Title of publication. Retrieved from date and URL.